Liz Gindraux, Melanie McCaffree, and Velma Lautzenheiser

Corks on the Vine and the Newest Restaurant in Habersham, Bistro Ten

story by JENNIFER BROWN-CARPENTER

If you were to imagine a Hallmark movie where three friends were sitting around, enjoying wine and cheese, and randomly decided to go into business together, you would have the story of Corks on the Vine with Liz, Melanie, and Velma playing the main characters.

Liz Gindraux is from the San Francisco Bay area and moved to Habersham three years ago with her husband, Olivier. The downtown Marketplace was one of the main attractions that drew them to Habersham. Liz and her husband have three grown children, and Liz’s background is in marketing and development for nonprofits.

Melanie McCaffree and her husband, Brian, understandably won Beaufort’s 2014 most captivating young couple award from The Island News. Melanie is a Kentucky native, so horses are a large part of her life. She is a successful horse trainer and teacher at her horse farm that she and Brian own on Broad River Boulevard and a part-time spin instructor at Synergy Cycling Studio.

Velma Lautzenheiser, originally from the Bronx in New York of Puerto Rican descent, has lived in Beaufort for 20 years. She has been working in the healthcare industry for over 40 years, and she and her husband, Mark, have five sons together.

So take those three main characters and flash forward to Christmas 2019 when the idea of opening up a little wine and cheese shop in the Habersham Marketplace was discussed. Just three months later, they were opening Corks on the Vine. “There was a lot of wine involved in our decision-making,” Liz says.

Melanie purchases all the wine, Liz buys the cheese, and Velma takes care of everything else. At Corks on the Vine, they like to focus on small producers. They choose wines with exciting backgrounds, filling their store with bottles from all over the country, Europe, and South Africa – all with their own unique stories to tell. Their beers are local craft beers, coming from the North/South Carolina and Georgia areas, with a few European and US small brews added in. The cheeses, easily 25-35 different cheeses, come from creameries worldwide and fluctuate with the seasons.

When designing Corks on the Vine, the three friends wanted to do and sell what they loved. They loved wine, cheese, and making food. There is a limited amount of cooking they can do at Corks on the Vine, and that is where their new venture, Bistro Ten, steps in.

Almost exactly one year after opening Corks on the Vine, the three ladies signed a lease to open Bistro Ten, a restaurant with a full-blown kitchen, indoor seating for ten, as well as a beautiful courtyard with even more seating. Camille Baldwin will be the chef at Bistro Ten, using local ingredients and produce to craft delicious soups, salads, and sandwiches. Chef Camille, a Lowcountry South Carolina native, is an energetic single mother of three boys and is passionate about creative cooking and gardening. Nothing makes her happier than feeding people good food! She has been designing and delivering healthy and creative menus for families in Charleston, Beaufort, and Spring Island since 2009 and is the perfect partner to join the ladies in this new venture. Bistro Ten will be open for lunch six days a week. During the evenings, the restaurant will serve as a space for cooking classes, wine and cheese tastings, and private events.

While Bistro Ten is a separate business from Corks on the Vine, the two perfectly sync, focusing on the community. Liz, Melanie, and Velma want the community to feel welcome and come to gather. “It is so much fun to watch tables of people meet and enjoy the company of other tables right here on our sidewalk,” Liz says. Melanie says she hopes that “people will fall in love at Bistro Ten — whether it is with their current partner, a new partner, or someone they are meeting for the very first time.” It doesn’t feel far-fetched when you are enjoying the most delicious wine, cheeses, and amazingly creative dishes in Beaufort.

Visit Corks on the Vine from 11a.m. – 7p.m. Monday through Saturday and 12 p.m. – 5 p.m. on Sunday. And make sure that you take time to visit the newly opened Bistro Ten. The atmosphere alone is worth the visit, and we can promise that your stomach won’t be disappointed either.